FA Cup - 4th Qualifying Round
25 October 2003

By Callum Williams

Mission accomplished. The Bees comfortably overcame a potential FA Cup banana skin with a thoroughly efficient display against their Ryman League Division One South rivals on Saturday.

Barnet, who went into the game without the suspended Danny Maddix and Leon Hogg, suffered another blow when illness forced leading scorer Guiliano Grazioli to pull out of the starting line-up on the morning of the match.

There was a good Barnet representation in the crowd of around 1,000 who witnessed a game, which was played in a blustery wind on a sloping and bumpy pitch.

There early exchanges were fairly even before Liam Hatch forced Bracknell goalkeeper Hutt to tip over his fine scissor kick. From the resultant corner, the ball was helped on for Ben Strevens to produce a similar shot that put the Bees ahead after 22 minutes.

Second Half

Barnet controlled the remainder of the first half, but were almost caught out at the start of the second period when Bracknell squandered a golden chance to level when they missed with a free header.

Almost immediately, play switched to the other end where Ismail Yakubu headed back a Williams' cross at the far post. Hutt parried the effort on to the foot of home skipper Underwood, who rebounded the ball into his own net.

This effectively ended the game as a contest and Barnet were unlucky not to increase their lead when Strevens' cheeky chip from 40 yards caught Hutt off his line but bounced on the crossbar and dropped into the crowd.

Bracknell created very little in attack, although Barnet keeper Shane Gore did produce one smart block and was also relieved to see a 20 yard free-kick pass harmlessly over his crossbar.

Barnet completed their task on 79 minutes when Hutt was again caught off his line, this time by Joe Gamble, who lifted the ball home from 25 yards to secure his team's place in the First Round and a home tie with Stalybridge Celtic.

Match Photos

Twenty five photos of the game by Chris Holland.

Attendance and scorer

There was some confusion over the correct attendance and scorer of the first goal.

The official attendance has been touted as 1069, and was apparently reported as such on BBC teletext.

The scorer of our first goal by many accounts was Ben Strevens. Including our very own reporter Callum, I notice.

I originally went with the stats from the Nationwide Conference site (link to this game below) - these come directly from the Press Association who supply these stats to most websites and other media, but have now amended these along with what the club published in their next programme. EXCEPT for the goal credited to Hatch. It was an own goal - I saw it with my own eyes!

Bookings

Barnet

L.Hatch, 10, unsporting behaviour

Bracknell Town

Smith, 40, unsporting behaviour
N.Baker, 60, unsporting behaviour

Teams

Barnet

S.Gore, M.Rooney, S.King, I.Hendon, C.Plummer, G.Lopez (T.Taggart 82), M.Williams, B.Strevens, I.Yakabu, J.Gamble, L.Hatch (P.Beadle 68)

Unused substitutes: G.Grazioli, L.Roach, R.Millard

Bracknell Town

M.Hutt, Hammonds, Edwards, N.Baker, J.Underwood, J.Glynn, Crittenden, E.Hayward, Selby, Smith, Palmer

Unused substitutes: Gibson, Cook, Douglas, Sargeant, Marchant

Other Reports

Nationwide Site
James' Site

If you know of any other reports please email me the link on info@bfcsa.net

I check unofficial sites that we link to when putting these reports up and link to the equivalent report if there is one (so long as it is original). Please see our links page if you want to exchange links.

I am no longer linking to Barnet's official site's match reports. Please see here for more information.

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